Ultimate Texans » Richard Justicehttp://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans
The Houston TexansTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:16:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.3Did any NFL GM have a better off-season than Rick Smith? I’m glad you asked me that question.http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/12/did-any-nfl-gm-have-a-better-off-season-than-rick-smith-i%e2%80%99m-glad-you-asked-me-that-question/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/12/did-any-nfl-gm-have-a-better-off-season-than-rick-smith-i%e2%80%99m-glad-you-asked-me-that-question/#commentsMon, 05 Dec 2011 02:11:00 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/?p=5627While we’re dispensing credit to the coaches and players, let’s not forget Texans GM Rick Smith. He had himself a terrific off-season, and with the Texans sitting atop their division at 9-3, with them playing with poise and resolve, he deserves a huge chunk of the credit.

He has the final say on every draft choice and free-agent signing. He works closely with Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips to get them the players they want, but the final say is his.

Regardless of who makes the call, Smith collects most of the information used to make the decision. Coaches study the players and offer their opinions, but Smith is at the center of everything.

He catches the heat when things go badly, and in a season like this one, he deserves the credit. His signing of CB Johnathan Joseph may be as important an acquisition as any team has had. He also drafted J.J. Watt, Brooks Reed and, yes, T.J. Yates.

In his sixth season, he has now had a hand in acquiring every player on the roster except Andre Johnson. These Texans were built largely through the draft, and that means Rick Smith.

About the best way to build a really good NFL team is to get it right in the first round. Smith’s first-round choices have been: Duane Brown, Brian Cushing, Kareem Jackson, J.J. Watt and Amobi Okoye.

He hit big on Cushing, Brown and Watt. Jackson is a work in progress, and Okoye didn’t progress the way the Texans hoped.

He made up for some of those mistakes by delivering Watt and Brooks Reed with his first two 2011 picks. Those two guys have been everything the Texans could have hoped for and then some.

His 2010 draft looks solid as well regardless of what you think of Kareem Jackson. Ben Tate, Earl Mitchell and Darryl Sharpton were his next three choices, and all have become contributors.

In a salary cap system, the only way to have success is to make good decisions in the draft. Not only does it keep young talent in the pipeline, it frees up the money to sign free agents, for instance, Johnathan Joseph.

It’s still amazing to me how much our thinking regarding the Texans has changed in just a year. This time last season I couldn’t imagine Gary Kubiak keeping his job. I had doubts if Cushing would ever be a contributor again.

Bob McNair didn’t listen to me on Kubiak, and suddenly all the things we thought about him—good with people, good with Xs and Os, good with personnel—have made him the biggest reason the Texans are atop their division.

Now the entire organization seems like it’s composed of winners, and that includes the GM. Take a bow, Rick Smith.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/12/did-any-nfl-gm-have-a-better-off-season-than-rick-smith-i%e2%80%99m-glad-you-asked-me-that-question/feed/0Justice: Texans add another chapter to their storybook seasonhttp://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/12/justice-texans-add-another-chapter-to-storybook-season/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/12/justice-texans-add-another-chapter-to-storybook-season/#commentsMon, 05 Dec 2011 01:17:51 +0000http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/?p=11588Suddenly, a nice season has turned into something magical. There’s now officially a storybook quality to these Texans.

“I’m lovin’ it,” linebacker DeMeco Ryans said.

He’d just been part of a 17-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons Sunday afternoon in front of a roaring crowd of 71,545 at Reliant Stadium.

Afterward, players said it was the loudest Reliant Stadium had ever been. As players feed off one another so apparently do fans.

This victory extends their club-record winning streak to six straight games. At 9-3, they’re tied with the Ravens, Steelers and Patriots for the best record in the AFC and lead the AFC South by two games with four to play.

Did you ever think you’d hear the Texans mentioned in the same breath with the Steelers and Patriots?

Ryans is one of the Texans who has been here for a lot of the bad days. Remember that team? It seems to be gone forever. Instead, we have one that’s smart and tough and very, very resourceful.

One season removed from a string of numbing losses, these Texans are playing with a swagger.

Injuries? Yes, they’ve had a few. OK, more than a few.

Mario Williams and Andre Johnson. Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart.

They lost Johnson to another hamstring injury in the second half and have no idea how long he’ll be gone.

Still, it seems that no matter who goes down, no matter what the circumstances are, they find a way to win.

When Texans coach Gary Kubiak met with his players Saturday night, he told them it didn’t really matter rookie quarterback T.J. Yates would be starting in the wake of injuries to Schaub and Leinart.

He told his players that he had the same faith in Yates that he had in Schaub, and he said the Texans weren’t going to play scared just because it was the kid’s first NFL start.

Kubiak reminded his players that the Texans had already lost some guys this season.

“It’s not about one guy,” he said. “It’s about the group.”

Can we pause one more time to thank Texans owner Bob McNair for NOT firing his head coach last year?

Despite a 2-8 finish, McNair believed in Kubiak. He believed in the man — we all do — but he also believed in the coach.

He felt in his heart that if the Texans hired a great defensive coordinator that things just might turn around.

Everything changed the day Wade Phillips walked through the door. His confidence, HIS swagger, rubs off on everyone.

He has taken over one of the NFL’s worst defenses and turned it into the No. 1-ranked unit in the league, and when you start counting the miracles of this season, you begin there.

That defense played well again, holding the high-scoring Falcons to a single touchdown and shutting them down after Arian Foster’s one-yard touchdown run gave the Texans a 17-10 lead with 6:05 remaining.

Brian Cushing was outstanding as usual, and so was Glover Quin and Connor Barwin and a bunch of others.

That’s the thing about these Texans. It’s not just one guy. It’s one guy here and another guy there.

It’s a bunch of guys playing as one, believing in one another and making the kind of plays the NFL’s best teams make.

First, a word about that winning drive. It was a thing of beauty, covering 85 yards. To get those 85 yards, the Texans had to run 19 plays and consume a club-record 10 minutes, 41 seconds.

It began late in the third quarter and lasted until more than halfway through the fourth. It gave the defensive players a chance to catch their breath, and when the Falcons got the ball back, there was a sense of urgency, a sense that if they didn’t do something then, they wouldn’t do anything at all.

They drove from their own 20-yard line to the Texans 25, but the Texans got a nice defensive play from Cushing and another from Kareem Jackson to end it there.

This was another day when Arian Foster showed why he might be the NFL’s best running back. He had a workhorse 31-carry day for 111 yards and also caught three passes for another 41 yards.

Now about that rookie quarterback. T.J. Yates who was the 152nd pick of last spring’s NFL draft. This appeared to be a good situation for him because he would have the opportunity to learn from Schaub and to get adjusted to the speed of the NFL game.

Injuries changed that timetable, and in his first NFL start, he was solid in completing 12 of 25 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown.

When reporters kept asking Foster about this “third-string quarterback,” he finally interrupted them.

“He’s NOT third string,” he said. “He’s first string now. He’s a starter in this league and deserves that respect.”

He has become part of a team that seems itself as greater than the sum of its parts. It’s a team that’s enjoying winning for the first time, a team that believes the best is yet to come.

“We kept fighting for each other,” Quin said. “That’s what we do.”

richard.justice@chron.com

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/12/justice-texans-add-another-chapter-to-storybook-season/feed/0Sure, the Texans are still a playoff teamhttp://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/sure-the-texans-are-still-a-playoff-team/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/sure-the-texans-are-still-a-playoff-team/#commentsMon, 28 Nov 2011 16:36:28 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/?p=5571The Texans still have a decent shot at finishing 10-6. If they can’t beat Carolina and Indianapolis with T.J. Yates, then they probably don’t deserve to make the playoffs anyway.

Regardless of who is playing quarterback, they’re still ranked No. 1 in defense and No. 3 in rushing in the NFL. Yes, they still have to get some plays out of the quarterback, but this team still has some reasons for hope.

Television cameras kept showing Gary Kubiak staring at that Waffle House menu he carries with him. He seemed to be thinking that if he stared at the thing long enough, he’d find something just right for Yates.

I think I speak for an entire city when I say I hope T.J. has been paying attention in those meetings he has been in the last six months. He never figured to need any of the stuff they were talking about, but maybe he’s one of those kids who is always trying to please the teacher.

“Matt, what are you supposed to do on this play?” Kubiak would ask.

“I know, I know,” T.J. would yell.

Or something like that.

OK, so are the Texans still going to the playoffs? At 8-3, they’ve got a two-game lead over Tennessee with five games left to play.

They’re going to be underdogs in these next two games — a home game against Atlanta (7-4) and a road game at Cincinnati. (7-4)

Meanwhile, Tennessee is playing a road game against Buffalo (5-6) and a home game against New Orleans. (7-3)

If Tennessee loses both and the Texans steal one of those games, they’d be sitting pretty.

A couple of weeks ago, those games against the Panthers (Dec. 18) and Colts (Dec. 22) looked like sure things. Now they could end up being the key to an entire season.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/sure-the-texans-are-still-a-playoff-team/feed/0Justice: Leinart gets his chance to bury his pasthttp://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/justice-leinart-gets-his-chance-to-bury-his-past/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/justice-leinart-gets-his-chance-to-bury-his-past/#commentsWed, 23 Nov 2011 05:34:19 +0000http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/?p=10596How many people get a true second chance? You’re a lucky man, Matt Leinart.

He came to the Texans needing to resurrect his career, to show he was capable of working hard and taking care of business.

There was some doubt about that after four seasons in Arizona left his NFL career in the ditch.

The Texans represented a perfect situation. Far from the pressure that comes with being a first-round franchise savior, he became the backup quarterback on a franchise that prides itself on painting the town beige.

Matt Schaub is relentlessly low-key and a workaholic. And let’s just say Gary Kubiak won’t be the life of your holiday party.

And they were perfect for Leinart, who may have learned that playing quarterback in the NFL is mostly drudgery. It’s about showing up early and staying late, about deflecting credit and accepting blame.

In five seasons, Schaub has uttered maybe two memorable quotes, but he’s held in the highest esteem possible by his teammates and coaches for his commitment and unselfishness.

Kubiak came along at the right time for Leinart because he knows offensive football and knows people. He’s a grinder, a lot like Schaub in that way, and if Leinart has been paying attention, it should have been like auditing a grad school class on playing quarterback.

The Texans figured they’d have Leinart for just one season because they thought some team would give him a chance to compete for its starting quarterback job. When that didn’t happen, Kubiak was thrilled to have him back. In these next two months, Leinart can erase a lot of baggage and write a new legacy.

Team walking tall

He is taking over a team feeling pretty darn good about itself, a team with a bit of swagger, maturity and leadership. This Texans team feels that after an agonizing decade, its moment has arrived.

If someone uses the phrase “manage the game’’ in reference to Leinart, they’re wrong, wrong, wrong.

There’s no such thing.

The Texans are good, but they’re not that good. At some point during Sunday’s game in Jacksonville, Leinart will have to make a play or maybe a bunch of them.

If you saw him win all those games at Southern Cal, if you saw him display grit and confidence, you know he has a chance to be pretty good in the NFL.

Forget what happened in Arizona. So he had some growing up to do. He’s not the first.

To watch Leinart interact with his USC coaches and teammates in the days before the BCS Championship Game against Texas was revealing. In ways large and small, it was obvious those Trojans were Leinart’s team.

Maybe the Cardinals pushed the envelope in using the 10th pick of the 2006 draft to take Leinart. Still, virtually every scout who studied Leinart believed he was good enough to be an NFL starter.

We may be about to find out if that is true. He’s not being asked to rescue a team or elevate a bad team.

The real deal?

If he makes the same throws he routinely made at USC, he’ll be fine.

The Texans are No. 1 in the NFL in defense and No. 2 in running the ball. They have a two-game lead in the AFC South with six left to play.

There must have been times the last couple of years when Leinart wondered when, or if, there would ever be an opportunity. He certainly never guessed it would be one this good.

The Texans have waited a long time to be in this position, to be playing for first place in the final month of the season. They have put all the right pieces around their new quarterback.

Now all he has to do is show all the people who believed in him at USC that he’s the real deal.

You’re a lucky man, Matt Leinart.

richard.justice@chron.com

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/justice-leinart-gets-his-chance-to-bury-his-past/feed/0Just when winning was getting boring, the Texans give us a new reason to watch.http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/just-when-winning-was-getting-boring-the-texans-give-us-a-new-reason-to-watch/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/just-when-winning-was-getting-boring-the-texans-give-us-a-new-reason-to-watch/#commentsTue, 22 Nov 2011 22:08:07 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/?p=5501 I can’t wait to watch Matt Leinart play this game. I just have a feeling he’s going to do well, and that’s based on absolutely nothing tangible.

He hasn’t thrown an NFL pass in two years, and his numbers from Arizona—14 TDs, 20 interceptions—are nothing to write home about. Beyond the production, there were questions about his commitment to the whole thing.

I’d like to defend the guy on this one. He was a young guy coming out of college and got a contract with $28-million guaranteed it. My first job out of college was in Abilene, and when the sports editor told me to feel free to take the company car on dates, well, I just a distinct lack of disciplines at times, too.

Leinart did too many spectacularly good things at USC to be considered a bust. He may end up being a bust, but if you can just isolate his USC years, he displayed leadership, toughness, poise and playmaking ability. If he had to mature some, he wouldn’t be the first college kid to have some of the same issues.

He couldn’t be stepping into a better situation. The Texans are No. 1 in defense and No. 2 in running the ball. They’re getting big plays from an assortment of people on both sides of the ball, and they’ll be getting their No. 1 guy back in Andre Johnson.

There’s no such thing as “managing a game.” Maybe that’s what Trent Dilfer did for the Ravens, but that just doesn’t happen much. The Jags have a solid defensive team and a very defensive front. They’re hard to move around, so Gary Kubiak’s patience with the running game could be tested.

The only way to move them out is to make a few plays in the passing game, especially one or two downfield. Leinart can make all the routine throw in this offense, but he’s going to make the defense respect him down the field, or it could be a long, long day.

Here’s to a short day. The Texans for the first time have a bit of swagger. As important as it is to be good, it’s also important to think you’re good. Players are feeding off one another on both sides of the ball, and that’s the thing good teams do.

Leinart knows all of this. He has waited a couple of years for this opportunity. Here’s to Matt Leinart and a fast finish to a special season.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/just-when-winning-was-getting-boring-the-texans-give-us-a-new-reason-to-watch/feed/0Brett Favre? To the Texans? No. No. No. Next question.http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/brett-favre-to-the-texans-no-no-no-next-question/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/brett-favre-to-the-texans-no-no-no-next-question/#commentsWed, 16 Nov 2011 14:28:09 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/?p=5458 Brett Favre is not in the discussion for the Texans. He wasn’t in the discussion yesterday and won’t be tomorrow. His name has come up on these stupid message boards and nowhere else. Last week, some knucklehead thought signing Albert Haynesworth was a great idea.

These kinds of comments bother me because it reflects badly on Texans. Around the country, they say, “See? They really are as dumb as Rick Perry.”

Matt Leinart is our starting QB. Let’s go over that one more time for the slowest in our audience: Matt Leinart is our starting QB.

He’s going to start against Jacksonville, and if he remains healthy, he’s going to start every game after that.

How is he going to do? I do not know.

He appears to have enough physical skills to play QB in the NFL. He appears to have enough smarts. He won so many big games at USC and looked so good doing it that it seems he should be able to win a few in the NFL.

NFL scouts had a spirited debate about Leinart when he left USC. Some believed he was worth a Top 10 pick. Others thought he was a bottom-of-the-round guy. But virtually all of them believed he was good enough to play in the NFL.

Plenty has happened since then, and Leinart did himself no favors in Arizona with his work habits, performance and, harumph, social life.

Now he’s getting the kind of opportunity that he might have doubted would ever come his way again. He’s taking over a team No. 1 in the NFL in defense and No. 3 in rushing. He’s going to be playing behind a really good O-line and with a lot of very nice offensive talent.

I don’t know whether he’s going to succeed or not, but we’ll soon find out. The Texans are guaranteed of nothing. At the moment, they’re the AFC’s No. 1 seed, but the Titans are right behind them at 5-4. This season could still go either way.

But playing Leinart is the right thing to do. He knows his teammates and he knows the playbook. He’s a far better option than getting a washed-up 42-year-old diva off the farm and counting on him.

He was a great player, but the key word is was. He played one season too many, and he would not be an upgrade over Matt Leinart. Matt Schaub’s injury is a terrible break for the Texans, and some of us have wondered if Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak should have been paying more attention to the backup QB position the last couple of years.

But they had spots they had to be filled in the draft, and it’s tough to lure a quality free agent when there’s not going to be allowed to compete for the starting job.

So an interesting season just got a little more interesting. The Texans have been better than almost any of us guessed they’d be, and this next part of the story might be the most interesting of all.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/brett-favre-to-the-texans-no-no-no-next-question/feed/0Brett Favre? To the Texans? No. No. No. Next question.http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/brett-favre-to-the-texans-no-no-no-next-question-2/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/brett-favre-to-the-texans-no-no-no-next-question-2/#commentsWed, 16 Nov 2011 14:28:09 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/?p=5458 Brett Favre is not in the discussion for the Texans. He wasn’t in the discussion yesterday and won’t be tomorrow. His name has come up on these stupid message boards and nowhere else. Last week, some knucklehead thought signing Albert Haynesworth was a great idea.

These kinds of comments bother me because it reflects badly on Texans. Around the country, they say, “See? They really are as dumb as Rick Perry.”

Matt Leinart is our starting QB. Let’s go over that one more time for the slowest in our audience: Matt Leinart is our starting QB.

He’s going to start against Jacksonville, and if he remains healthy, he’s going to start every game after that.

How is he going to do? I do not know.

He appears to have enough physical skills to play QB in the NFL. He appears to have enough smarts. He won so many big games at USC and looked so good doing it that it seems he should be able to win a few in the NFL.

NFL scouts had a spirited debate about Leinart when he left USC. Some believed he was worth a Top 10 pick. Others thought he was a bottom-of-the-round guy. But virtually all of them believed he was good enough to play in the NFL.

Plenty has happened since then, and Leinart did himself no favors in Arizona with his work habits, performance and, harumph, social life.

Now he’s getting the kind of opportunity that he might have doubted would ever come his way again. He’s taking over a team No. 1 in the NFL in defense and No. 3 in rushing. He’s going to be playing behind a really good O-line and with a lot of very nice offensive talent.

I don’t know whether he’s going to succeed or not, but we’ll soon find out. The Texans are guaranteed of nothing. At the moment, they’re the AFC’s No. 1 seed, but the Titans are right behind them at 5-4. This season could still go either way.

But playing Leinart is the right thing to do. He knows his teammates and he knows the playbook. He’s a far better option than getting a washed-up 42-year-old diva off the farm and counting on him.

He was a great player, but the key word is was. He played one season too many, and he would not be an upgrade over Matt Leinart. Matt Schaub’s injury is a terrible break for the Texans, and some of us have wondered if Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak should have been paying more attention to the backup QB position the last couple of years.

But they had spots they had to be filled in the draft, and it’s tough to lure a quality free agent when there’s not going to be allowed to compete for the starting job.

So an interesting season just got a little more interesting. The Texans have been better than almost any of us guessed they’d be, and this next part of the story might be the most interesting of all.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/brett-favre-to-the-texans-no-no-no-next-question-2/feed/0What do you have for us, Matt Leinart? Next man up for Texanshttp://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/what-do-you-have-for-us-matt-leinart-next-man-up-for-texans/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/what-do-you-have-for-us-matt-leinart-next-man-up-for-texans/#commentsMon, 14 Nov 2011 23:32:43 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/?p=5439 Matt Leinart came to the Texans to resurrect his career. Things ended badly in Arizona, with some believing Leinart had neither the work ethic nor talent to play in the NFL. For these two seasons, he has had the advantage of learning the game and the position from Gary Kubiak and of watching how Matt Schaub goes about his business.

Schaub changed the locker room at Reliant Stadium the moment he walked in the door. It’s hard to imagine any NFL quarterback working harder or being more prepared. He’s a professional in every way you can define the word. He’s among the first to arrive and last to leave. He understands that the vast majority of his job description is drudgery, that is, studying video, familiarizing himself with game plans etc.

Is it Matt Leinhart’s time to shine? (Brett Coomer/Chron)

Schaub had been with the Texans only a couple of weeks when Kubiak left the facility one afternoon and noticed a group of players gathered around the quarterback’s vehicle. They were laughing and cutting up, and at that very moment, Kubiak was convinced he’d gotten the right guy.

Playing quarterback isn’t just about making the right throws. It’s about being the face of the franchise and being the toughest guy and the most prepared guy and a dozen other things. Agent Leigh Steinberg once said that quarterback was the most unique position in professional sports because it was part management, part coach, part player, part ambassador.

Schaub has done his job very, very well these five seasons. When the game was on his shoulder in the fourth quarter, he almost always put them in position to succeed. To say he will be missed is a vast underestimate. He’s the lone player the Texans probably couldn’t lose, so we’re going to find out about the NFL’s next man up theory.

The Packers absorbed a numbing amount of injuries last season, but Aaron Rogers went the distance. Had he have gotten hurt, all those other injuries would have looked almost insignificant.

Now Schaub is gone for a few weeks, if not for the season, and the Texans are counting on Matt Leinart. We don’t know what he’s capable of. We just don’t. Everyone has an opinion, but they’re based on nothing.

I watched him interact with his coaches and players at USC before the national championship game against Texas, and it was clear that Pete Carroll trusted him in a way coaches don’t usually trust players.

He made so many big throws at USC and won so many big games, it would be silly to say he was incapable of winning in the NFL. He doesn’t have a huge arm, but it’s huge enough. He also carries himself the way a quarterback should.

Leinart is stepping into a very nice situation. The Texans have the NFL’s No. 1 defense and its No. 3 running game. They’ve got some swagger, too, from being tied with the Steelers for the AFC’s best record. You can knock the schedule as weak all you want, but when a team wins and wins, it starts to believe it’s always going to win and to play with a speed and confidence that losing teams don’t have.

Kubiak never figured Leinart would be back for a second season with the Texans. He thought he’d gotten his career jump-started and that some team would give him a chance to start. It may end up being a lucky break that Leinart didn’t get that opportunity. These next few weeks are huge for the Texans, but they’re a chance for Matt Leinart to make a name for himself in the NFL.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/what-do-you-have-for-us-matt-leinart-next-man-up-for-texans/feed/0Justice: Texans definitely look like one of the NFL’s best teamshttp://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/texans-defintely-look-like-one-of-the-nfls-best-teams/
http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2011/11/texans-defintely-look-like-one-of-the-nfls-best-teams/#commentsMon, 14 Nov 2011 04:04:27 +0000http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/?p=10098TAMPA — Is it time to forget everything you thought you knew about your NFL team?

At the moment, the Texans are doing a pretty good imitation of one of the NFL’s best teams and did so again Sunday afternoon with a smothering 37-9 victory over the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Matt Schaub tossed an 80-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones on the first play of the game, and there wasn’t a second after that when the Texans weren’t in control.

At 7-3, they’re not only alone atop their division, the AFC South, they’re tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC’s best record.

If the season ended today, they would host every playoff game, including the AFC Championship Game.

OK, let’s slow down.

After next week’s bye, they’ve got six more games, and if this franchise has taught us anything over the years, it’s to play ‘em one at a time.

Still, it’s impossible not to see the possibilities. They’ve got the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense and one of the league’s best offenses, led by running back Arian Foster, who once more turned a game into his own personal highlight reel.

His 78-yard touchdown reception midway through the second quarter was a thing of beauty, a dashing, weaving, cutting run that left tacklers flailing.

Just four weeks ago, the Texans had fallen to 3-3 with an ugly loss in Baltimore, and with that defeat came all the old questions about a franchise that has had just one winning season and no playoff appearances.

After that game, tight end Joel Dreessen spoke for his teammates when we said: “THIS has gone on long enough.”

The Texans haven’t lost since, and in a happy locker room on Sunday, Dreessen was reminded of that conversation.

“Every guy in here hated that feeling,” he said. “All this means is that we’ve got to keep it going.”

The schedule has softened some since then, but the Texans are winning impressively, by an average of 22.5 points.

Foster and Ben Tate are among the top 10 rushers in the league, and an assortment of defensive players — cornerback Johnathan Joseph, linebackers Brian Cushing and Connor Barwin, and rookies J.J. Watt and Brooks Reed — have helped make the Texans the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defensive team (they were 30th last season).

Against the Bucs, they forced four turnovers, had four sacks and didn’t allow a touchdown until the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter.

During pregame warmups, Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips could sense where this one was headed.

“We’ve got a lot of energy,” he said.

This game had worried head coach Gary Kubiak for reasons that maybe only another coach would understand.

“We had five or six guys not practice all week,” he said. “But they stepped up and put it on the line for their teammates.”

During the week, he made a deal with his players.

“I’ll get you guys to Sunday,” he said.

He shortened practices, guessing that rest was more important than another long, grinding day on the field.

He was also sending a message. That is, he trusts his players. He trusts their seriousness and maturity and preparation.

The Texans have won despite the absence of their best player, wide receiver Andre Johnson, who suffered a hamstring injury in Week 4 but is expected to return for the next game, Nov. 27 at Jacksonville.

“You put Andre Johnson back in the mix, I don’t know what can stop us,” defensive end Antonio Smith said. “The team is making the transition to a winning culture.”

Winning can be as contagious as losing. When teams begin to think they’re good, they play faster and freer and with more confidence.

Foster finished his touchdown run by turning and skipping backward into the end zone. That little dance spoke volumes for a team coming off a 6-10 season that included a 2-8 finish highlighted by one heartbreaking loss after another.

“A little swagger now and then doesn’t hurt anybody,” he said smiling. “It’s fun when you have an offense clicking on all cylinders.”

When someone asked if he thought the Texans might be the AFC’s best team, he laughed.

“You trying to stir up some stuff?” he asked.

That’ll all be sorted out in the weeks ahead. After the game, they trotted off the field and back into the locker room with smiles, screams and slaps on the back.

“We’re a hungry team,” cornerback Brice McCain said. “We have so much to play for. It feels very good. When you get used to winning, it becomes part of your nature.”

Defensively, the Texans are swarming to the ball and making plays more consistently than they ever have before. Offensively, they were again at their best, doing pretty much whatever they wanted. The Texans scored on the first play of the game, and there was never a time where it felt like the Bucs might win.

The Texans enter the bye week atop the AFC South with a 7-3 record after Sunday’s 37-9 rout of the Bucs. This has been an easier portion of the schedule, and the Texans have taken care of business, winning four in a row by an average of 22.5 points.

They return from the bye to play the Jags on the road before facing two playoff contenders, the Bengals and Falcons. If you’re still skeptical — and it’s fair to be — you’ll have some of your questions answered. The truth is that we’re in new territory, and none of us knows exactly what to expect.

The Texans appear to be pretty close to a complete team. They’re getting plays from all over the place on defense, from Brian Cushing and Brice McCain and a bunch of others.

Offensively, it was another impressive afternoon, with the Texans doing pretty much whatever they wanted to do against the Bucs. Matt Schaub had a very solid day, and so did Jacoby Jones. Arian Foster, Ben Tate and Derrick Ward were all good.